After starting off the season in a major funk, the Atlanta Hawks are putting the puzzles pieces together. They have won six of their last ten games and in doing so have foughten back to .500. The Hawks played a fiery game against the New York Knicks in their last contest. It was a game that saw the ejection of Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony and ended with the Hawks walking away victorious in an overtime affair. Dwight Howard, who had been dealing with a back injury, returned against New York, scoring 16 points and grabbing a game-high 22 rebounds in the win. Point guard Dennis Schroder had 27 points and five assists in the game. Schroder was handed the reigns of the Hawks this offseason when Atlanta shipped Jeff Teague to the Indiana Pacers. This season Schroder is averaging 17.6 points and 6.2 assists per game. Known to be a poor shooter, he has even raised his three-point shot to nearly 36%.

“I’m glad we won the game. Everybody fought for 48 minutes and in overtime, the extra five minutes. I’m happy we won the game.

Four other players scored in double figures for Atlanta.

The Pistons reverted back to their old ways in their loss against the Bucks. After playing a very competitive game versus the Golden State Warriors and knocking off the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Bucks came to Detroit and ousted the Pistons. Tobias Harris had 23 points and 12 boards in the loss.

Stan Van Gundy took the blame after being embarrassed once again:

“This is entirely on me,” he said. “We have had too many games where we are getting buried. I’m embarrassed right now and I have a lot of thinking to find a way to get this fixed. This is brutal.”

While I do not believe the blame should be placed on him, Van Gundy must come up with a way to fix the problems this Detroit team is facing.

Probable Starting Lineups:

Detroit Pistons

PG: Reggie Jackson

SG: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope

SF: Marcus Morris

PF: Jon Leuer

C: Andre Drummond

Atlanta Hawks

PG: Dennis Schroder

SG: Kent Bazemore

SF: Thabo Sefolosha

PF: Paul Millsap

C: Dwight Howard

Detroit desperately needs to get back in the winning column. Tonight they will have that opportunity against the Atlanta Hawks.